In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on sustainability, not only from the society but also from companies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). For instance, The United Nations (UN) has adopted 17 global objectives for sustainable development. Within the European Union, the current Commission has an ambition that Europe will be the first climate-neutral continent and has launched the European Green Deal with the main message of resetting the European Union’s economy for a sustainable future. One industry that has a major impact on the environment, as well as on society, is the industrial sector. The awareness of the impact on future generations from the industrial sector has increased among governments, producers and consumers. Because of this many companies in the industrial sector are acting on these expectations. Companies which choose to integrate sustainability in the business can gain long-term competitive advantages in term of first-mover advantages as well as economic benefits. Despite that there is huge potential with integrating sustainability in the business, it is difficult to do so. This in turn, leads to a focus on short-term profit instead of long-term competitive advantages and sustainable profit. With this in mind, it is interesting to study how aspects of sustainability can be integrated in the traditional business model and therefore be classified as a sustainable business model. Which leads to the purpose of this study; to examine how the business model can be used as a tool to develop the work of sustainability in a mediumsize steel company. Furthermore, drivers and barriers regarding how enterprises can integrate aspects of sustainability have been examined. To address the purpose, this study has focused on a company in the steel industry in Linköping. The study is a qualitative study focused around interviews with people in the corporate and operational level. Moreover, a litterature study has been conducted where teories regarding strategy, business models, sustainability and sustainable business model, as well as teories regarding drivers and barriers, have been analyzed. The result from the study indicates that there are several elements which are crucial for integrating aspects of sustainability in the business model. These aspects can be highligheted by Triple Layered Business Model Canvas, TLBMC, which is a tripartite business model made up of an economic, environmental and social canvas. Some examples of elements which are crucial are Costs, Partners, Value Proposition, Customer Relationships, Materials, Production, Distribution, Supplies and Out-sourcing, Environmental Benefits, Employees, Governance and Local Communities. The primarily drivers are customers and an increased demand for sustainable products, regulations and lower operating costs. The largest barriers are lack of communication and balancing the three pillars of sustainability.

BACKGROUND - The development of Industry 4.0 increases the opportunities to both automate and digitize processes in the manufacturing industry. The steel industry has been around for many years, which means firmly anchored operations and both manual- and automated processes. To make better decisions, identify bottlenecks, and test new functions without having to stop the production, a digital model of the process can be helpful. Furthermore, with the rapid development of technology, digital models can be further developed into digital twins. A digital twin should be able to handle the communication between the physical- and digital world automatically and analyze data to make decisions in the process. RESEARCH QUESTIONS What are the challenges of developing a digital model representing a production line within a global steel manufacturing company? What opportunities could a digital model of a production line entail, and how could Industry 4.0 technologies create opportunities to further develop the digital model into a digital twin? METHODS - In this project, both a literature- and case study have been carried out. During the literature study, techniques that can be used to develop the digital model further have been investigated. During the case study, a digital model of a Quench Line was developed to gather practical experience of what it can mean to create a digital model of a manufacturing process within a steel manufacturing company. The model has been developed in MATLAB/Simulink. RESULTS - The most significant challenges when developing digital flow simulation models identified in this project were data management/access, handling variations, verifying the model, andlack of knowledge linked to digital models in general. The opportunities identified and confirmed in this project were that the model could be used to carry out new logistics planning, bottleneck analyses, and test new machine implementations. To further develop the digital model into a digital twin, Industry 4.0 technologies will be crucial. The technologies that will be useful are the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, and Big Data.

To be in line with the Paris Agreement and mitigate average temperature rise to 1.5°C, and to a maximum of 2°C, greenhouse gas emissions will have to be reduced close to zero before mid-century. If these targets are to be reached, rapid and complete decarbonisation of every sector within the global economy is required. Currently, energy-intensive industrial sectors account for more than 30% of global energy use, and are responsible for approximately 50 % of global greenhouse gas emissions, whereas the iron and steel industries have the largest aggregated greenhouse gas emissions globally. Although the steel industry is at the cusp of major climate neutrality transitions, as recent studies have presented opportunities of producing completely fossil-free steel, decarbonising large-scale production processes is a complex query affected by a multitude of internal and external factors. Höganäs AB, as one of the largest powder metal manufacturers in Sweden, has initiated their work towards net-zero emissions in 2045. With production sites in over 18 countries, the company serves as an example of a company in the midst of turning a “hard-to-abate” industry towards being sustainable.  The aim of this study is thus to assess the effects of climate agendas and frameworks, such as the Paris Agreement and the IPCC Report on initiatives and policies on a global, national and regional level within countries where Höganäs AB has its major production facilities. The aim is further to review the effects of climate strategies and targets on the steel and powder metal industry, as well as to monitor the industry’s inclinations towards climate neutrality. The findings of the performed literature study, as well as the conducted qualitative interviews, resulted in a framework regarding how to identify and assess trends within the steel and powder metal industry based on two theoretical perspectives on corporate climate transitions. Through the results, it could be concluded that despite all countries having ratified the Paris Agreement as of January 2021, no country is currently on the path towards reaching the 1.5°C target that is recommended by the IPCC Report and the Paris Agreement. Still, there is a growing demand for low-carbon technology and renewable energy in every country, something that will partly weigh up for both up-scaled industrial production and countries’ increased GDP. Within the industry, an increased number of initiatives and commitments has been launched during the past few years, indicating that questions of climate change and sustainability are being entrenched in the corporate sector. Going forward, indicators to measure continuous improvements to reach net-zero are associated with emission- and energy data, value chain management and industry investments. As technological advancements towards hydrogen, electrification and digitalisation are being upscaled and increasingly tangible, climate neutrality in the PM and steel industry is achievable through a profound and intended climate focus and an increased sense of urgency.

No description available.

The traditional method for conducting sensitivity analysis is to repeatedly solve a model while varying the parameters. The solution is then obtained as some average of these optimal solutions under those different conditions or states of the world. The present work presents results of conducting sensitivity analysis using a method more firmly ground in mathematical programming theory. The present analysis models the investment decisions in a case with large uncertainty in demand: the steel industry in Argentina. Special emphasis is devoted to the recent history, where a recent shift in economic policy (1976-1981) towards allowing free competition with imported products resulted in a severe crisis for the steel industry and its trading partners. An increase in exports was observed during this period which is not likely to continue if there is a recovery process. In the first sections, the relation of steel production and economic growth is analyzed in the context of the world situation of the industry, setting the background for the analysis of the Argentinian industry as a case study. The results of the present model adequately describe the existence of unutilized capacity observed in the industry, as well as the recent increase in exports. The most important conclusion of the model is that the traditional method of conducting sensitivity analysis results in significant inefficiency of the reached decisions, involving large losses for a case such as the steel industry considered here. / Master of Arts / incomplete_metadata

As the world population has exceeded 7 billion in 2011, the global awareness of sustainability arises more than ever since we are facing unprecedented challenges in energy, water, material and climate change, in order to sustain our current and future generations on this planet. The Guardian has named the Iron Bridge opened in 1781 across the River Severn, Shropshire, UK as the cradle of the modern world, which is the world's first cast-iron bridge and remains as the enduring symbol of the Industrial Revolution (Guardian, 2009). Ever since, in the spanning of 250 years, iron and steel have been the cornerstone of modern industries from developed countries to developing ones especially for those which are still experiencing their major urbanization process. Nevertheless, iron and steel making are among the most raw material-dependent and energy intensive industries with large gaseous pollutants, CO2 and waste generations in the world. Therefore there is a pressing need to solve these resource and environmental problems associated with the iron and steel making. This work addresses a number of challenges stated above by focusing on the improvement of the overall sustainability of this highly energy-intensive industry via (1) utilizing inexpensive iron ore tailings to enhance the material sustainability, (2) CO2 reduction by mineral carbonation using its own solid waste stream, i.e., iron and steel slags, and (3) slag valorization through the use of carbonated slags as sustainable construction materials. This work begins with the study of an ironmaking plant using the direct reduced iron (DRI) process, which is a molten iron production method utilizing fluidized bed and melter-gasifier technologies. This technology allows the direct production of the molten iron using the inexpensive iron ore tailings and the non-coking coal, during a gas-solid reaction in the fluidized bed. Practically, a higher percentage of the fine particles (i.e., iron ore tailings) is favored to mix in the feedstock because it is cheaper than the traditionally used coarse particles (i.e., bulk and fine iron ores). The challenge of this novel technology is attributed to the entrainment of the fine particles during the gas-solid fluidization. Since the electrostatic phenomenon was significant during the particulate fluidization systems which might affect the particle entrainment, the electrostatic charge generation and accumulation were investigated for binary and quaternary particulate systems. Specifically, the effect of the addition of two different iron ore tailings (i.e., hematite and magnetite) in the fluidized bed was studied in terms of particle-particle interactions, electrostatics, and entrainment rates. The behaviors of different particulate systems were found to be highly dependent on the chemical and physical properties of the particles. The results suggested that the enhanced electrostatic forces between the fine and coarse particles due to the electrostatic charging during the fluidized bed operation retained the fines to some extent and the sintering of the fine particles could happen on the surface of the coarse particles during the iron ore reduction. Therefore, for this fluidized bed based DRI process, iron ore tailings are proved to be able to replace the coarse iron ores to the extent that fine particles will sinter but not be entrained and thus the overall cost of raw materials could decrease. In iron and steel making, limestone and dolomite are also mixed in the feedstock to remove the impurities of the iron ores, mostly silica, which forms slag as a silicate-based material in the downstream of this process. Slags of different types have been reused as cement clinker, aggregate, road base and fertilizer. Recently, iron and steel slags have also been deemed as alternatives for mineral sequestration because these slags are similar to natural Ca/Mg-bearing silicate minerals. The accelerated weathering of natural minerals or industrial wastes is an environmentally benign route to thermodynamically stabilize carbon. Thus, another study of this work is fixing the CO2, especially emitted from the iron and steel plant, into the slag, a solid waste generated from the same processing stream. In particular, the stainless steel slag has been a focus since its application in construction materials has been limited due to the high content of FeO and the environmental concern of heavy metals leaching (e.g., Cr). Along with the iron and steel making, the cement industry is also among the largest industrial CO2 emitters. Mixing carbonated slags as a filler material in the cement mortar while guaranteeing the overall quality of the cementitious material could reduce the usage of limestone and the carbon emissions from limestone calcination and reduce energy input during the cement production. In this study, the production of environmentally benign cementitious material was coupled with the direct carbonation of stainless steel slag. Compressive strength, exothermic behavior and leaching behavior of the mixed cement mortar were investigated. Particularly, mixing 10 wt% of the direct carbonated stainless steel slag sample prepared at 30 °C in a Portland cement did enhance the compressive strength of the cement mortar. Also, the mixing retarded the hydration and overall setting time. Finally, the Cr leaching of the cement mortar with the addition of the direct carbonated stainless steel slag was minimized. Thus, the iron and steel industry and cement industry should collaborate, to minimize their overall material input, energy usage and carbon emission jointly. During the direct carbonation, stainless steel slag and CO2 flows are introduced into the solvent simultaneously. Whereas for the two-step process, calcium ions are extracted from the solid matrix into an aqueous phase, and then the CO2 is bubbled through and reacts with the Ca. The two-step route allows optimizing the conditions for both the dissolution and the carbonation. Moreover, the precipitated end products (e.g., precipitated calcium carbonates, PCC) from the two-step process, normally with higher quality compared to direct carbonated slags, can be adapted for various industrial and construction applications. However, the overall reaction is constrained by the kinetics of the stainless steel slag dissolution. Thus several organic and inorganic chelating agents were applied in order to accelerate the dissolution. Some of these agents were found to be desirable for the dissolution of stainless steel slag at different pH via the differential bed study. Ligand concentration and temperature affected the extent of the extraction in the batch reactor. For the carbonation step, PCC from the modeled chemical solution and the dissolved stainless steel slag solution were non-identical, which was also affected by the reaction pH and temperature. The properties of the PCC prepared in the batch reactor and the bubble column reactor were also found to be dissimilar. Thus, for an iron and steel plant that adopts the two-step carbonation of slags for CO2 reduction, the end products could be engineered by tuning the reaction conditions to meet different end-user requirements. On the other hand, there have been significant efforts to reduce the cost of the two-step carbonation, including the utilization of value-added byproducts like iron oxide. In particular, silicate minerals or industrial waste often contain 5~20 wt% of Fe and by dissolving the iron into aqueous phase, a variety of Fe-based materials can be synthesized by precipitation. In this work, Fe-based catalysts were synthesized from serpentine and stainless steel slag (SSS) and applied to the biomass-to-hydrogen conversion via an alkaline thermal treatment pathway. The synthesized Fe-based materials were compared with the purchased hematite and magnetite and the reduced Fe-based catalyst derived from SSS was found to be catalytically active. This suggests an opportunity to produce inexpensive catalysts from the solid waste of the iron and steel making. Finally, a novel iron making scheme based on a fluidized bed DRI system was proposed by this study. It combined all the studies above that inexpensive iron ore tailings were used as a feedstock for the iron production, slags were utilized for sequestering CO2 and ended as filler materials for cement mortar. Preliminary economical and life cycle assessment was investigated based on the current scale of an existing industrial plant. An economically, environmentally and ecologically favored iron, steel and cement production system could be potentially achieved with improved overall material sustainability and carbon footprint.

No description available.

The general aim of the study was to determine the effect of feedback derived from task observations on lower-level employees’ empowerment, motivation and performance in a selected steel production company. Feedback plays an important role in empowering and motivating employees to improve performance. Previous research indicates that relationships exist between feedback and empowerment, motivation and performance. However, past research was confined to particular context(s), and the effect of feedback on lower-level employees has received little research attention. It was identified that feedback derived from task observations could potentially become a tool to enable lower-level employees to be empowered to perform to the best of their abilities. The research design used is a quantitative non-experimental cross-sectional approach, where questionnaires were used to collect data. The targeted population was all 500 lower-level skilled workers at one business unit of a selected steel production company. Only 308 lower-level employees were available and willing to participate. The findings of the study indicate that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between feedback as derived from task observations and employee empowerment, motivation and performance. The positive relationship found between feedback and empowerment indicates that feedback derived from task observations can be used as a critical component in empowering and motivating lower-level employees to improve performance. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The general aim of the study was to determine the effect of feedback derived from task observations on lower-level employees’ empowerment, motivation and performance in a selected steel production company. Feedback plays an important role in empowering and motivating employees to improve performance. Previous research indicates that relationships exist between feedback and empowerment, motivation and performance. However, past research was confined to particular context(s), and the effect of feedback on lower-level employees has received little research attention. It was identified that feedback derived from task observations could potentially become a tool to enable lower-level employees to be empowered to perform to the best of their abilities. The research design used is a quantitative non-experimental cross-sectional approach, where questionnaires were used to collect data. The targeted population was all 500 lower-level skilled workers at one business unit of a selected steel production company. Only 308 lower-level employees were available and willing to participate. The findings of the study indicate that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between feedback as derived from task observations and employee empowerment, motivation and performance. The positive relationship found between feedback and empowerment indicates that feedback derived from task observations can be used as a critical component in empowering and motivating lower-level employees to improve performance. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

<p></p><p>I dagens samhälle tas miljöfrågor allt oftare upp i den allmänna och politiska debatten och ett aktivt miljöarbete är något som i allt högre grad krävs av företag från bland annat myndigheter och miljöorganisationer. Stålindustrin är inget undantag och får därför ofta kritik för att de åtgärder som vidtas inte är tillräckliga.</p><p>Inom stålindustrin genomför företag ofta investeringar för att minska sin miljöpåverkan trots att avkastning på det investerade kapitalet uteblir. Den institutionella organisationsteorin förklarar dessa handlingar som direkta konsekvenser av likriktning. Det fenomen som studeras i studien är spridningen av miljömedvetenhet eftersom denna anses ligga till grund för investeringarna i miljöåtgärder inom den svenska stålindustrin. Formatet för studien är en fallstudie där den empiriska datainsamlingen skett genom tryckt material och intervjuer.</p><p>Det kan konstateras att det studerade företagets miljöarbete påverkas i stor utsträckning av andra aktörer inom det organisatoriska fält som företaget tillhör. Inverkan på det studerade företagets miljöarbete och således spridningen av miljömedvetenhet varierar mycket mellan olika aktörer. Det är framförallt aktören <em>politiker och myndigheter</em> som genom tvingande mekanismer styr företagets miljöarbete. Beroende på rådande situation kan dock även influenserna från övriga aktörer påverka företagets miljöarbete och spridningen av miljömedvetenhet.</p><p> </p> / <p></p><p>In society today environmental issues more often appear on both the public and the political agenda and an active environmental awareness is increasingly often demanded from companies by regulative authorities and environmental organisations. The steel industry is no exception and therefore receives criticism that they do not undertake the necessary actions to prevent further pollution.</p><p>Companies within the steel industry often invest in different measures to reduce their environmental impact although it seldom generates a profit. Institutional theory explains these actions as direct consequences of conformity. The phenomenon of interest is the spread of environmental awareness because it is considered to be the reason behind investments in environmental impact reduction within the Swedish steel industry. The study is preformed as a case study where the empirical data is collected through written sources and interviews.</p><p>It is established that the environmental work of the focal company is largely affected by the other actors within the organizational field of interest. Among these actors the level of impact on the focal company’s environmental work and therefore also the spreading of environmental awareness varies a lot. <em>Politicians and government authorities are</em> the actor which first and foremost through coercive actions affects the environmental work in the studied company. Although, depending on the situation at hand the other actors can also play very important parts in affecting the studied company and the spread of environmental awareness.</p><p> </p>